First of all Uncle Buck yes I am posting something semi positive about AJ you are not dreaming and I am not being held in Travis Best's basement.

Since I am the biggest detractor of AJ I thought I should point out that there was a stint last night that I thought he played very well. One of the things that is always harder for the backup pg is of course that they are playing with other backups. This was the excuse for AJ not playing that well last year and it was not entirely untrue (just not all that true either)

Clearly he is no Tinsley I will be the first to tell you that. The thing that I saw last night was that when he was on the floor with both Jones' Foster and Harrison the offense was not nearly as stagnant as is his usual. Other than Foster none of those guys will be starting at the end of the year. (knock on wood) clearly Cro can replace Foster in this lineup and not lose anything.

My point is that I think this lineup could give us a true 2nd team. An entire group of players, one at each position (of course I would still rather it be another pg) who can go into a game and score and defend. When AJ is on the floor he needs every single other player to be a threat in order to spread the floor. Otherwise it is just too easy to cut him off from the one or two players he needs to get the ball too. While Foster is not a scoring threat he is an offensive rebounding threat.

Once we get everyone back I could see our depth being

pg Tins/AJ

sg Reggie/Jones

sf Jack/J.J./Curry*

pf Oneal/Cro

c Foster/Harrison/Pollard

*Assuming we do not get Ronnie back.

That is 12 players our entire active roster. Each and every one of them can contribute something positive.

If we play it right ie give AJ people who will spread the floor when he is in. We should be able to kill other teams when we are at full strength. The only thing is we simply can not put AJ on the floor with Edwards/Fowlkes/Curry (at least not right now) and expect the team to produce anything at all.

My main problem with AJ has always been that he has been used as something he is not. But with the Jones' Cro and Harrison I think he can be effective.

Sorry if I rambled a bit.

Unclebuck

12-15-2004, 10:50 PM

Good points.

I have always liked when Fred and AJ are in together, that allows FRed to create and in fact it forces Freddie to be aggresive.

Ragnar

12-15-2004, 11:32 PM

I agree with what you are saying on Freddie. His game seems to work best with a pg who simply hands him the ball and lets (or forces) him to create his own shot. He is not a come off of a screen and hit a jumper kind of player. And he does not seem to run the lanes in a manner that opens him up for the kind of on time delivery that Tinsley prefers.

We have seen AJ and Freddie in there together a lot but the spacing has not been very kind to what Freddie does best. I think the difference is that with J.J. also on the floor the other teams have to respect his outside shot and that spaces the floor a lot better. They are now very likely to stay out on J.J. and that gives Freddie a lot more room for a dash to the basket. Ad Cro/Foster and Harrison/Pollard in there to clean up any boards and that is the best second unit we have probably ever had.

Once again I would like to point out that I have not totally lost my mind. I would still prefer that we have someone like Strickland in there to run the point, since he is after all an actually point guard. What I am saying is that we can survive AJ being in the game a lot better if F.J. and J.J. are both in the game giving both Fred and AJ more room because of the spreading of the floor.

If AJ is in there with Curry and any of the rentals the D is still good but the O comes to a screeching halt.